Elemental
by BiOCaAM
Summary: He was the enemy. He was the target. So why couldn't she think otherwise? UlquiHime
1. Numero Uno

A/N: You all knew it was inevitable. This one is shockingly long, probably tl;dr material, at least when it's finished. At least it isn't an angst fest…but yes it does mostly consist of angst…I'm terrible.

_Elemental:_

of or relating to the elements

**I. Hydrogen (what the stars are made of)**

Seriously, there weren't many things that Inoue Orihime wanted to bang her head against the wall for, but this was one of them. Why the hell hadn't she thought that her friends would come in the first place? Sure, Yamamoto speculated that she had been a traitor, but it was called speculation for a reason.

At least she'd definitely have a story to tell her (alleged) kids. 'Did you know that your mother went to purgatory, met spirits who could destroy the world just by sneezing and was holed up in a cell for all of three months?'

She had never truly considered how she'd present this unbelievable chapter in her life to people she'd meet, or even people she already knew. It seemed so unimportant at the time that it didn't even matter.

Right now, she'd rather be the oblivious girl she was a year ago than the one she was now. She wanted nothing more than to beOrihime, just the girl you went to high school with. But now, she was _Orihime_, the girl who was forced to cause a major shit-fan collision course.

_A moon and no stars…_

**II. Helium (made by the stars)**

She was annoying.

There wasn't anything to like about her anyway; she was clumsy, emotional, whiny…the list went on. Forever. That being said, Ulquiorra didn't consider it much of a privilege to have to metaphorically drag her back and forth everywhere.

That being said, she was annoying, but even more so entertaining.

**III. Lithium (heat transfer)**

She didn't think about it. Really, she didn't. Because if she did, she wouldn't have a drop of sanity by the time she left Hueco Mundo, or rather, _if _she left Hueco Mundo.

She was an explosion waiting to happen, and it was all his fault.

**IV. Beryllium (the highest melting point)**

Hoping didn't get anybody anywhere. So why did she even bother? He couldn't understand this. But on the same token, he couldn't understand anything about her.

She wasn't ordinary, he concluded, because anybody else would've been broken a thousand times over by now.

**V. Boron (heat resistant)**

This was getting old very quickly. He blamed her for most of what went wrong, but this was to be expected. At this point, she really, truly didn't care.

He was evading the fact that it wasn't her fault but his.

**VI. Carbon (everything as we know it)**

She wasn't God. Wasn't that position reserved for Aizen, anyway? The bigger question here, though, was if she even wanted that power.

You can't uphold the world forever.

**VII. Nitrogen (below freezing)**

"_No."_

That word alone was enough to drive him up the wall, but what was even worse was knowing that she had dipped way below the line of sanity.

**VIII. Oxygen (air and what it entails)**

One time, she tried to kill herself.

Tying the sheets of her bed together, she didn't feel anything, absolutely nothing was going through her mind.

The minute she realized that he had been watching her the whole time, she drew a sharp breath and knew what the value of air was.


	2. Numero Dos

_A/N: Guys, I'm having a hard time dealing with the loss of my grandmother, so if my writing isn't as good as the previous chapter, then I apologize...r.i.p. Grandma. ;.;_

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**IX. Fluorine (reactive)**

At this point, there was no right or wrong, and nobody could distinguish between the two. She really didn't know how to react to those torturing her or helping her. They were all the same.

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**X. Neon (glow)**

He doesn't understand how she still waits and smiles, nodding to herself quietly when her world is crumbling down around her. Everything could be dark, and she would still glow.

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**XI. Sodium (explosive)**

She's scared of him, how he can kill just by pointing to someone, and how he thinks nothing of it.

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**XII. Magnesium (the oceans)**

"There's no ocean here..." she said absently, looking out the window. Only then did he truly understand how much she hated being there.

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**XIII. Aluminum (dull)**

"How can you just stand there and not care about anything? Is Aizen really that important to you where you won't do anything unless he tells you to?"

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**XIV. Silicon (crystalline)**

At the bitter end when she was leaving with her shinigami friend, she looked at him and said slowly and emotionlessly, "I hope you're happy, being a mannequin for your God."


	3. Numero Tres

_A/N: Yep, I got off my ass and did the third installment._

**XV. Phosphorus (morning star)**

Ulquiorra frequently wondered if he had been a human in her world. Would things have changed? Or more importantly, would _he _have changed anything?

There was nothing to guide him.

**XVI. Sulfur (toxic)**

She was so sick of everything. There was nothing left. The air had gone stale. It was just toxic to breathe.

Everything had been taken away from her.

**XVII. Chlorine (necessary)**

It was a drug, because there was no logical explanation for Ulquiorra Shiffer to keep going to back to Inoue Orihime for whatever demented reason his mind was withholding from him.

**XVIII. Argon (superior)**

Somewhere along the line, he developed a superiority complex, which only magnified her inferiority one. And god damn it, he _knew _what he was doing was wrong.

It was better to take everything away from her now than to have the people she loved take it away.

**XIX. Potassium (ever changing)**

By now she had melted. Orihime was nothing more than a liquid, taking on the shape of her container.

**XX. Calcium (helpful)**

He envied her. She was to the world what air was to humans. If there was one thing he blamed Aizen for, it was for taking the world's most precious protector away from it.

**XXI. Scandium (dark)**

_Please God, save me__…_

_It__'__s too dark here__…_


	4. Numero Cuatro

A/N: I attempted to make them longer, and I failed. D: I'm sorry.

**XXII. Titanium (invincible)**

If Orihime closed her eyes and tried hard enough, maybe she could go back home for a few brief moments, because there she was invincible, a place where nothing could destroy her.

How sad that Ulquiorra didn't have a home.

**XXIII. Vanadium (soft)**

For some ungodly reason, he started to feel something akin to pain. Not physically, of course, but something vaguely kept tugging at him, as subtle as someone shyly tapping you on the shoulder.

Something was wrong.

**XXIV. Chromium (average)**

Orihime didn't need to think about it; she was nothing more than an average girl who had been thrown into a very strange world. And who could she blame? Her God, who had done very little for her?

**XXV. Manganese (colorful)**

After watching Inoue Orihime, Ulquiorra wasn't sure if he felt very comfortable around the blacks, whites and greys of Hueco Mundo anymore.

**XXVI. Iron (penultimate)**

It wasn't going to be long before the Winter War, where quite possibly everyone Orihime knew and cared about would be killed.

That wasn't just limited to her friends, though.

**XXVII. Cobalt (everywhere)**

Hueco Mundo; a place that was staggeringly large and frightening small at the same time. Maybe that was why he heard her voice all the time.

**XXVIII. Nickel (final)**

The last time he ever saw her was when she had been sleeping, and Ulquiorra knew as well as she did that what little they had was now gone.


	5. Numero Cinco

**XXIX. Copper (pure)**

What exactly would become of Inoue Orihime, the girl who had seen more than she ought to? Nobody—not even her beloved shinigami—could answer that question. Nothing could stay the same forever, she figured. No big loss, anyway.

**XXX. Zinc (history)**

What exactly would become of Ulquiorra Schiffer, the Espada who existed only to serve his master? This was something everyone knew; he would stay, just like he always did. No matter how much he wanted it to change, he would always be resigned to his bitter fate. One day, someone like her would come along.

But they couldn't replace her.

**XXXI. Gallium (hiding)**

It was a cruel game of hide and seek, she decided. Only, you'd die if you lost.

**XXXII. Germanium (form)**

She embarrassed him. She didn't _do _anything to embarrass him, he was ashamed of everything he thought about her. Ashamed that it was the one thing he had neglected to realize this entire time.

**XXXIII. Arsenic (death)**

It was a slap in the face. He truly thought he would never see her again, yet there she was, a black mini-skirt and long-sleeved shirt, the traditional garb of a shinigami. He froze when he saw her hand playing with the hilt of her zanpaku-tou.

Everything had flown out the window.

**XXXIV. Selenium (phenomena)**

"As a shinigami," she began slowly, her voice now that of a woman's rather than a girl's, "it is my duty to kill you."


	6. Numero Seis

A/N: D: I'm shocked at how many reviews this is getting. I might as well keep going.

* * *

**XXXV. Bromine (burn)**

Ulquiorra thought of himself as too high to show her his zanpaku-tou. On the same note, she deserved a fair fight against him.

And so it began.

**XXXVI. Krypton (weakness)**

It really hadn't occurred to him that she could heal herself, no matter how severe the injury. Unless he flat out killed her, there was no way that she would stop fighting.

**XXXVII. Rubidium (flames)**

"_Futatabi joushou, nanakai fenikkusu." _(1)

**XXXVIII. Strontium (combust)**

She was faster than he had anticipated, almost completely reading his movements without a single flaw. It was getting harder and harder to convince himself that he had the upper hand.

When he saw his shoulder bleeding, he knew that he lost this battle, but not the war.

He would never lose the war.

* * *

**1: "Rise again, seventh phoenix" (an allusion to the Shun Shun Rikka; you can consider her zanpaku-tou her seventh weapon)**


	7. Numero Siete

Sorry for not updating, I just haven't been in the mood to write that much lately. But I had sudden inspiration, so here's a new chapter just for j00! 8D

**XXXIX. Yttrium (crimson)**

After retreating to Soul Society and treating her wounds by herself, Orihime scrutinized her own bitter memories of the battle that had just occurred. It scared her that she had become more powerful than even the Cuatro Espada, and at the thought of the dark crimson blood that had come from the wounds that _she _inflicted, she buried her head in her arms, feeling the old her come back.

**XXXX. Zirconium (suffocation)**

Injured both physically and mentally, his pride severely bruised, Ulquiorra went back to Hueco Mundo, expecting Aizen to punish him. He wasn't wrong in his assumption.

"It seems as though we have a formidable foe on our hands, if she can defeat you," he said condescendingly, his perpetual smile now wiped from his face. Damn that girl! It was her fault for everything. Now he'd be looked down upon as incompetent.

Never before had he felt such a suffocating hatred for a human.

**XXXXI. Niobium (anger)**

How strange that they had managed to keep their cool in the midst of battle and saved their acrimonious emotions for when they had gone back to their respective hiding places. It was this anger, this pure _abhorrence_, that made them look forward to the next fight, the next rush of adrenaline. It would be the next time that they'd let it all out and clash to kill.

**XXXXII. Molybdenum (payment)**

She expected something from him. Although she remembered much from her past life, the final months before her death were incredibly blurry. All she remembered from those times _was _feeling like she was trapped in a prison, being tortured by Aizen and his Espada. It slowly came back to her…

And he was the only one who stuck out in her mind.


	8. Numero Ocho

**XXXXIII. Technetium (instability)**

Inoue Orihime had risen to an incredible state of power in such a short amount of time that she was deemed unstable by Yamamoto-soutaichou. She knew better than to throw a fit over something so insignificant as being confined to paperwork for the next year or so, but she couldn't keep her blood from boiling at the thought of not being able to exact her revenge at Ulquiorra for ruining her life.

**XXXXIV. Ruthenium (explosions)**

Ulquiorra had expecting to see her again, and when he didn't he felt an unfamiliar feeling suddenly detonate in his chest. He had a very strong feeling that he was never going to see her again, and for some reason or the next this deeply troubled him.

**XXXXV. Rhodium (expense)**

It turned out that Yamamoto's decision to exclude Orihime from combat was a grave mistake; it seemed as though the Arrancar had grown exponentially in just a matter of weeks. Without her abilities, they were in for much more loss than they had anticipated.

**XXXXVI. Palladium (electric)**

After appealing to the soutaichou and more than just a little coercing, Orihime was finally allowed to go back **to **fighting, even if it was severely limited. The electric flowing through her veins could hardly be contained before she stopped to think; why did she become this person? The person her old self would've hated?

**XXXXVII. Silver (shapes)**

She briefly wondered if the Arrancar lost part of their personalities from serving Aizen. It wouldn't be a stretch to assume that they did, considering the fact that he expected nothing less than perfection.

This made her inexplicably sad.


	9. Numero Nueve

_Wow. I mean, wow. I'm so sorry about the lack of updates—life just did a total 180 for me. Entering and adjusting to high school is no easy task. But I come bearing a new, longer chapter of Elemental. Again, I apologize profusely for my inactivity. Also, I am quite aware of what's going on with Karakura Town in the canon manga—this is an alternate reality, yes? Now that that's clear, we can move on with the story!_

**XXXXVIII. Cadmium (cancerous)**

Although Orihime thought her defenses were strong, she had to concede that he was something else entirely—it was as though she her own sanity turned to dust whenever she even thought of him. The knowledge of him being her greatest weakness was more frustrating than anything else; it ate away at her, until she became human once again.

**XXXXIX. Indium (imposter)**

She was surprised to hear their attack plan at first, especially when they told her that she was to pose as a fukutaichō. She wasn't sure of what exactly they were planning, or how they were going to defeat Aizen and the Arrancar with bluffs, but she had no choice in the matter. After all, if she could see him again, she had nothing to complain about, did she?

**L. Tin (screams)**

He wasn't one to even waste energy on pathetic concern for others, but there was something about the way she screamed in agony—a primative, raw display of the human parts of her that were still left—that made him shudder, maybe even pause. Those screams made whatever he did seem insignificant in retrospect.

**LI. Antimony (intricities)**

She refused to admit that there was much more to the situation at hand than what she was briefed on. No one could possibly predict the complications that would occur when her own sentiments were laden into the supposed war. She couldn't see past the intricate web of consequences her actions would bring about; who would she rather betray, her friends or herself?

**LII. Tellurium (precious)**

Nobody knew of the struggles she went through, the battles she waged inside her mind. Not Ichigo, not Rukia, not even Unohana-taichō. What scared her more than anything, however, was not that someone might know, but that _Ulquiorra_ knew. He was undoubtedly the last person she trusted with anything.

He was the enemy.

He was the target.

So why couldn't she think otherwise?

**LIII. Iodine (numb)**

In all honesty, he was sick of feeling numb. He was sick of having to maintain this false nonchalance towards everything. And yet, he felt this obligation to keep it up, because if he didn't, Inoue Orihime just might have seen his weakness and would strike him where it hurt.

**LIV. Xenon (invisible)**

Oh, how she wished she was invisible. Maybe then, everything—not just her body—would disappear. Her thoughts, hopes, dreams, desires—they would all vanish into thin air. That was the only way she could possibly hope to rid of the evil that was adorning her otherwise pure mind.

**LV. Caesium (melt)**

In the middle of a heated battle, she heard the words that she knew would destroy her from the inside out. Maybe if anyone else had said it, it wouldn't affect her as much, but it was him. And he had the power to make her melt, as much as she wouldn't admit it.

"_I win."_


End file.
